What do I do now?
by FlameOfIllumination
Summary: The Dark Lord's gone...Harry's left England...Draco is alone
1. Draco

_All I ever wanted was to be at your service  
but now I'm alone cause you were here and you're gone_

_  
_Draco walked faster, brushing past other students, blinded by the tears in his eyes

_And all I ever wanted was to feel I had a purpose but now that's all gone_

The only student not rejoicing on this day...the Dark Lord gone.

_But if you could give me _

_Just one love  
just one life  
just one chance to believe in mine  
just one love  
just one life_

It wasn't for Tom that he was crying...it was for himself.

Hermione and Ron had been dating for a year now, since 6th form.

Harry was always alone. Fighting the dark lord. Alone.

He never noticed eyes watching him. He didn't see the Death Eater Draco killed.

_You'd bleed for me  
and I didn't dare to notice you  
now I'm stuck  
out on a line.  
Bleed for me  
I didn't care to be with you  
now you're stuck in my mind_

Harry didn't know that his smile, on the first day of their last year, was what saved the dragon.

Draco had fled to Severus, and expecting death he confessed his disloyalty.

Imagine his surprise when he was pulled into an embrace, and then sent to Dumbledore.

And so Draco turned to the light...and found nothing.

When the war ended...Harry fled to America.

He refused to come back. Refused to finish school. He just disappeared from the magical world.

_All I ever wanted  
was to be what you needed  
cause something so strong  
it could never be wrong.  
And all I can promise  
is to say what I'm feeling  
We've made it so long_

__  
And Draco returned to school.

The Slytherin king. Mistrusted by the students, treated warily by teachers.

Not Severus...but Severus was gone now...his betrayal cost him his life.  
_But if you could give me  
just one love  
just one life  
just one chance to believe in mine  
just one love  
just one life  
you'd bleed for me  
and I didn't dare to notice you_  
_now I'm stuck  
out on a line._  
_You'd bleed for me  
I didn't care to be with you  
now you're stuck in my mind_

And so everyone Draco ever cared about was gone.

His father and mother fell with death eater masks covering their faces.

Severus died at Hogwarts, defending a class of first years.

Harry...Draco didn't even know he was on this list until Harry left.

Gone to America, to start again, to live a normal life

J_ust one love in my life...  
You'd bleed for me  
and I didn't dare to notice you_

_  
_"I suppose it's for the best really," Draco proclaimed, his voice ringing down from the top of the astronomy tower. "I'm the son of death eaters, we never would have been happy." even as he said the he knew he lied. "You would have made my life have a purpose, but what am I supposed to do now? My friends are gone, my family, and even my cause...even proving I'm not just a Malfoy...I've proved that, the light has won, but what do I do now?"

Draco's silver eyes had darkened now, a plain grey reflecting the sky above.

"Tell Me! He screamed.

Now I'm stuck  
out on a line.  
Bleed for me  
I didn't care to be with you  
now you're stuck in my mind

It was beautiful, graceful. Many eyes watched him fall, many eyes looked away just before his lithe body hit the ground.

Emerald eyes gleamed with tears.

"Draco!"

**Review**


	2. Harry

**A Chapter I never intended to write, now please tell me if I should have, and ifI should keep going**

I saw him from afar, walking heedlessly through the crowds. Watched how the other students avoided him, how whisperings of mistrust flowered wherever he went.  
Apparently he'd lost his popularity.

What could I say? Dumbledore asked me to come back, 'Just for a little while' he said. 'You won't be disturbed' he said. He's such a liar.  
Always was a liar though, a manipulator. I don't yet know why he wants me back, but it can't be good. I was wearing a dark blue robe, just like the students, blending in. I guess black reminded everyone too much of Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

No one noticed me, or if they did, they just assumed I was an Order member, checking up on the school. Which in a way I suppose was right. I never did quit the Order, just went AWOL.

Hogwarts is so different now, most of Slytherin is gone, and Neville's gone.  
His Order of Merlin first class is hanging in his grandmother's house.  
Lavender, Parvati, Dean and Seamus are also among the names listed in the Great Hall, written in marble, their age and house written beside them.

Harry sighed 'I never wanted to come back here, and I'm leaving as soon as I talk to Dumbledore.' he muttered A flash of red hair in front of him and he cringed. A Weasley, the last person I want to see.  
Harry turned away as Ginny limped past, surrounded by her friends.  
Harry kept walking, steadily heading for the Headmasters office.  
He glanced around, transfixed fro a moment by the sight of a retreating back and silver blond hair heading towards the astronomy tower.

"Wha?" Harry was suddenly buffeted from behind, knocked to the ground. Instantly he rolled over and onto his feet, wand out at the throat of his assailant. A small boy, looking at the hooded figure with terrified eyes. "So-sorry mister" the kid said, frozen awkwardly. Harry relaxed, withdrawing his wand; he muttered gruffly "No worries kid" and stalked off again, aware that he had attracted stares. Not from one boy though, the 7th year had kept going, seemingly unaware of his surroundings.

Suddenly Harry felt sick. It was as if he'd taken a blow to the stomach. Ron and Hermione were somewhere in Hogwarts, so many people were here, yet so many gone.

Flashback  
"Harry, I'm sure Mr Weasley and Miss Granger will be happy to see you" Dumbledore said kindly.  
Harry scowled. "Well I'm not seeing them, I'm not seeing anyone. I just want to be alone" he said sincerely, meaning every word. He was sick of saving the world, sick of school and tests, sick of friendships and the ties that bind. He just wanted to be free.  
Dumbledore looked sad. "Very well, I shan't tell anyone you're coming" End Flashback

Finally Harry admitted to himself wryly that he'd been more wandering around the ground lost in nostalgia than actually attempting to go see the Headmaster. He turned around and caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eyes. Harry didn't gasp, or flinch or anything, he had his body too well schooled fro that, but he did break into a run. A flat out run towards the astronomy tower, where a figure appeared to be preparing to jump. "Tell Me!" Words drifted down to him on the wind, and Harry looked up seeing exactly what he feared.  
The lithe, beautifully graceful body of Draco Malfoy, Lone seventh year Slytherin, diving from the top.


	3. Draco's Persistence

**First of all a big thank you to all my reviewers. I was shocked, I'd expected one or two, but I got seven! In gratitude, here's the next chapter, way earlier than my usual updates :)**

"Draco!" Harry yelled. Then "_Tardus Cado_!" Too late it seemed, a mere metre from the ground his fall slowed, but not enough to stop the impact. A sickening thud was heard and Harry froze.

He became aware of the students around him, and ran over to Draco, yelling, "Stay back" at the crowd. They ignored him, surging forward to gawk. Harry turned and said softly "_Situs oculus licentia is locus_" before turning and levitating Draco up, heading at a run for the hospital wing.

Harry burst in, his hood pulled over his head again. "Pomfrey" he called, placing the boys body on a bed. Madam Pomfrey bustled in, her white uniform spotless. "What are you doing in-" she saw the body and turned away, ignoring Harry completely as she went to work, muttering spells and grabbing for potions. Tears stood out in his eyes as he watched, and seeing Draco begin to stir Harry turned and left, despite the voice in his head yelling at him to stay. _You saved his life! He might want to see you_!

_No_ Harry said to himself sternly. _I went through this last year. I refuse to torture myself with it again. I'm the boy who lived, and he's the spy that turned the tide of the war. Just because we're on the same side doesn't change his hatred for me._

**Flashback** (sixth year, before Voldemort's defeat.)

"Malfoy, leave my friends alone" Harry said quickly, intervening in yet another Ron/Draco fight.

"Listen Potter, don't get any ideas. I'm in the Order now but I'll be dead in my grave before I take orders from you." Draco snarled.

**End flashback**

At last Harry stepped inside the Headmasters office, ignoring his polite salutations he sat down and went into his calm mode. "Headmaster Dumbledore, I am here. I must ask why was I called here?"

Dumbledore looked old now, as though now that Voldemort was gone, his true age showed through.

"Harry" he began. "I have called you here to ask a favor." Harry held up his hand and interrupted him. "I'm sorry Sir, I must be going to deaf, I thought you just asked me for a favor." A flash of Harry's old temper shone through. "I should think that killing Voldemort for you was all the favors you would ever need! I should think that now I'm 17, an adult, I would finally be left alone."

Dumbledore said nothing, just kept looking at him steadily.

"Fine" Harry said impatiently. "What do you want?"

"I brought you here to ask if you would do me the favor of becoming a teacher here." Albus said calmly, his eyes still with that damn twinkle ever-present.

It took all of Harry's self control not to either laugh or scream at Albus, and merely to ask, with a sarcastic smile. "You think a 17 year old who didn't finish 7th year would be a good teacher? Headmaster I think your responsibilities has damaged your thinking skills."

"Not at all, I wish for you to teach dueling, that I am making available for 5th year and above. The advanced training you went through to prepare yourself for your fight with Voldemort also give you just the skills necessary." Albus replied.

Harry laughed coldly. "So even back then you had a plan in place to control me once I defeated Tom? You trained me not only to defend myself, but also so that I could become a teacher here?

I can think of a number of other people who are just as qualified to do that as I. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger for example."

Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed they are qualified, but as they chose to return to school and finish the last year, they are not eligible yet."

Harry looked at Dumbledore for a long time.

"No." He said softly. A picture of the blonde boy currently lying in the hospital wing flashed into his mind. _That would have been me if I'd stayed._

"I am not interested in spending the rest of my life at Hogwarts. I will be leaving soon, after I see someone. By the way headmaster, the gawking students I sent away are currently locked in the library, if you would like them to ever leave I suggest you tell them to start studying. I placed a charm in there that will send them to their common room after they have done an hour of study.

Harry stood up, "Goodbye Headmaster."

It took all the dark-haired boys determination to stay away from the hospital wing. _He doesn't need the boy he hates around him now. _

Draco forced his eyes open, wincing as he realised: _I'm still alive. _Madam Pomfrey's face loomed above him. "Ah good, you're awake." She smiled at him, and then left the room, _doubtless gone to tell the headmaster _Draco thought.

Draco sighed. Carefully he swung himself out of bed, slipping into his shoes and changing into his blue robes. He left the hospital wing, wondering where he could go. Then it came to him. The room of requirement.

When Draco stepped inside there was table, a chair and an ornamental dagger, snake figures entwined around it. On the table was a bottle of fire whiskey a quill, ink and parchment.

Draco took up the quill, and wrote a few lines, before turning his eyes to the dagger. "This time, nothing can stop me"

The point was sharp, and he tested it idly on his fingertips first, watching the blood drip down his finger.

"I'm not weak."_  
_Draco yelled to an empty room, seeming to see the faces of others in the walls. His father and mother, looking at him in disappointment. "Draco, you're too weak to even do this," they said sadly, disappearing, to be replaced by Professor Snape. "Godfather" Draco said happily. Severus smiled, and then sneered at him. "Pathetic. Just get on with it already Draco"

Draco gasped aloud, tears forming in his eyes.

He raised the dagger, and cut long gashes into his arms, ignoring the pain, reveling in the feeling of the blood washing over his skin.

Draco carefully and methodically sliced his arms, until they were too weak to hold the dagger. He dropped it to the floor. Then fell beside it.

It was Harry who realised where Draco would have gone. The teachers searched the grounds and classrooms in vain, until Harry, about to leave heard whom they were searching for. More importantly, he realised what Draco would do. "Fuck." he thought. "I should have known this would happen, I forgot how determined Draco is." Panic stricken, Harry bolted.

When Harry reached the room of requirement, he nearly slipped in the blood covering the floor. "Dobby!" He yelled, knowing the elf could hear him anywhere in Hogwarts. A crack, and the elf appeared. "Yes Harry Potter Sir?" "Go to the hospital wing, get Madam Pomfrey, and then get Dumbledore." Harry ordered.

The house elf disappeared and Harry dashed to Draco's side, fearing he was too late.

"Draco, Draco." he said, looking down Draco. His white blond hair was covered in blood, which was still pouring out of his badly mutilated arms. Harry ripped the hood from his robe with one quick jerk, and wrapped Draco's arms in it, in an attempt to stop the blood flow.

It seemed like hours, the time he waited for help, hours and hours with Malfoy in his arms, blood everywhere. At last help arrived, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Dumbledore and the new Potions Master Professor Venenum. Madam Pomfrey went to work straight away, and as Harry looked at Professor Dumbledore, he saw the same expression he'd seen on his face when Sirius died. Guilt.

"Yet another lost person you did nothing to save," Harry thought, ignoring his own stirrings of guilt. _Its not my fault, I wasn't even here. Dumbledore always seemed to know everything I did, did he dump everyone else when Voldemort died?_

Harry turned away, and noticed something he hadn't before. A note on the table.

He sat down on the chair, his feet in a pool of blood.

Gingerly he picked it up, surprised to see his name on it. There were bloodstains scattered over it, and the writing was messy, unlike Malfoy's usual perfect penmanship.

**Dear Harry,**

**I tried to do the right thing**

**And I found nothing.**

**And I hoped I'd have a home again**

**And I had nothing.**

**This is for you**

**You're too important for anyone  
You play the role of all you want to be  
But I, I know who you really are  
You're the one who cries when you're alone **

**But where will you go  
With no one left to save you from yourself  
You can't escape  
You can't escape**

**You think that I can't see right through your eyes  
Scared to death to face reality  
No one seems to hear your hidden cries  
You're left to face yourself alone**

**I realize you're afraid  
But you can't abandon everyone  
You can't escape  
You don't want to escape **

**I'm so sick of speaking words that no one understands  
Is it clear enough that you can't live your whole life all alone  
I can hear you in a whisper  
But you can't even hear me screaming **

**I realize you're afraid  
But you can't reject the whole world  
You can't escape  
You won't escape  
You can't escape  
You don't want to escape**

**I'm sorry Harry.**

**Je t'aime.**

As Draco was carried from the room, Harry's new persona cracked, and years of self-control came undone. He added his tears to the liquid at his feet. "I'm sorry," he whispered to the room. "I love you"

**_Situs oculus licentia is locus_. Idle eyes leave this place.**

**_Tardus Cado._ Slow fall**


	4. Harry watches Draco

_**Well. I'm reposting this.** _

_The world was dark all around him. He felt like he was swimming, and he kicked his legs instinctively, only to hear a voice near him say "Ow! Watch where you're kicking idiot" _

_Draco jumped in surprise, and then mentally shook himself._

_The voice spoke again from behind him._

"_Jumpy, aren't you?" it said mockingly._

_Draco looked around, searching for that voice._

_There was nothing but a sort of red fog, he could see about an arms length in front of himself, but there was nothing there but red._

"_I'm sorry" Draco drawled. "I don't talk to disembodied voices."_

_Instantly pain hit him. Draco glanced at his arms and saw the marks he had made reappearing. They darkened and started to bleed, pouring down his arms. A mirror appeared in front of him and he watched horrified as the Dark Mark appeared on his forehead, screaming as it burnt into him._

_The Slytherin dropped to his knees, screaming and clutching his head._

_He closed his eyes, and when he opened them Harry was standing in front of him._

His green eyes filled with hatred, Harry leaned forward and kissed Draco hard, bruising his lips and branding him again. Draco's mouth filled with blood and he tried to scream, unable to break the kiss.

Harry sat at Draco's bedside watching Madam Pomfrey, and a healer from Mungo's work on his scarred body. Professor Dumbledore had left, gone to tell the students in the library how to get out.

It took many hours, but at last the activity around the bed ceased. The mediwizard didn't say anything, just went straight to a fire and flooed out. Madam Pomfrey turned around and looked at Harry, her eyes tired and strained.

He stared steadily back at her, then remembering he no longer had a hood on, and feeling self-conscious he quickly changed and fixed his blood stained robes.

Pulling the dark green hood up to cover his face, he watched the medi-witch.

She fiddled a little more with Draco's covering, and then stopped.

"Why are you stopping?" Harry demanded anxiously. "He's not awake yet." Harry swallowed hard. "He's not dead is he?" Harry was amazed at how matter-of-factly he was able to ask that question.

"No Mr. Potter. He's alive, but he's in a coma." Madam Pomfrey said. "I don't know when…or if he'll awaken.

Harry waited all day and night, sitting at the foot of the bed still as a statue. Dumbledore looked in but was chased away by the fire in Harry's eyes. "You've changed."

"I know." Harry replied icily.

The silence of the room was only broken by Madam Pomfrey's footsteps from the next room.

"Father?" a voice broke the silence.

"Severus…Mother…" Draco was awake, and mumbling.

Harry sat beside his bed and listened to the young man call for his family, a family lost in graves now. Tears formed in his eyes and with the last word they spilled out, matching the tears in Draco's eyes.

"Harry…" Draco lapsed into silence again.

Draco collapsed back onto the bed, eyes shut and Madam Pomfrey came bustling in.

"He woke up, for a second or two I'm sure." Harry said brusquely.

The mediwitch ran her wand gently over the Slytherin's face and Harry watched along with her as the light changed from white to grey. "He's still in a coma."

Harry shook his head silently. _I know what I heard…_

Madam Pomfrey looked at him sharply.

"There are many types of coma's Mr Potter. Mr Malfoy is in a wizard coma which is different."

Harry ducked his head. _The last thing I want is more magic lessons…_

"A wizard who goes into a coma does not come out like a Muggle. Wizard comas require the victim to have a reason for wanting to come out. They must use their magic in ways they never have before and should mister Malfoy recover-"

"You mean when." Harry interrupted, annoyed and saddened by the 'Hermione' tone in the witch's voice.

The nurse eyed his speculatively but didn't comment.

"Nothing you can do here will help him. If I might make a suggestion, he isn't the only one in need of recuperation. Your friends would probably like to see you." The nurse hinted.

Harry swallowed hard and stood up, shaking his head. "I don't think we should meet."

_Or, I think I can't handle them._

Madam Pomfrey looked at him as if she'd heard his thought, but said nothing, straightening Draco's coverlet.

Harry left.


	5. Harry, Ron and Hermione

**Chap 5**

Harry continued to walk the corridors, reflecting on how strange it was that a hooded figure pacing the school was normal now, the students looked when he came round the corner but didn't seem surprised. Occasionally he'd hear a mutter: "An Auror."

So manyof them haddied in the war that Harry had supposed he would stick out, but apparently Dumbledore kept them around.

Looking around at the walls of this familiar place Harry felt an unaccountable longing to rip his hood off, find Hermione and Ron and go for a walk around the lake, or sit by the fire in the Gryffindor common room.

"Flick to the left a little more. No, your left."

Harry froze as a voice floated down the corridor towards him. Standing in the entrance to an empty classroom Ron Weasley flicked his wand determinedly. "Now, say the incantation- in your head" Hermione cautioned. Harry stood motionless, listening to his friends talk.

Ron smiled through the doorway, and Harry wondered why he didn't just go in.

Ron flicked his wand to the left, and a long musical note reverberated down the corridor, followed by a stream of coloured lights. "Pretty." Ron said, looking at them. Then his eyes fell on Harry, still standing frozen in the corridor. "Hey, you lost mate?" he called. _Oh no. he's coming this way_. Hastily Harry cast glamour on himself, and walked forward. "Hello R- uh, hello." Harry said trying to make his voice deeper. Ron frowned. "You right mate?"

"Yes thank you." Harry said unsteadily. "You, you're doing the Manifest sound spell?" he asked, thinking of the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7.

"Sort of." Ron looked awkward. "It's, well Hermione modified it a little. She's brilliant."

Harry bit his tongue to keep from laughing. What happened next tore all his laughter away.

From the empty classroom Ron had been standing in came Hermione. Harry looked away from Ron's gaze and met hers. She coasted along slowly, coming to a stop beside Ron and looking up at Harry with a touch of defiance in her eyes that shocked him. It was a face that said 'ask about my wheelchair and I'll transfigure you into a coat rack.'

Harry couldn't help run his eyes over it, and before he could stop himself he said:

"I didn't know. No-one told me. I would have come back!"

Ron and Hermione stared at him, and Harry stared back for a few seconds before turning and running full pelt back along the corridor.

He ended up back at the hospital wing. _All roads lead here…_

"Fine." Harry snapped to the corridor, confused and saddened by his encounter.

_No-one told me that happened to her. Even her letters…she never said._

I doubt, Harry said to himself, _she would want you back out of pity. That's why she didn't tell you._

"Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby appeared besides him.

"Shh." Harry hissed, checking the corridor was still deserted. "I don't want the students to know I'm here."

"Dobby is sorry sir, Dobby just wanted to check on H- on Sir."

"I'm fine Dobby." Harry smiled weakly.

Dobby looked at him doubtfully. "Is there anything I can get Sir, something to eat perhaps?"

Harry shuddered and a picture of Malfoy lying on the floor in a pool of his blood flashed through his mind. "No thanks."

Dobby nodded solemnly. "Well, Dobby goes back to the kitchens then."

"Wait, Dobby." Harry said, struck by a thought. "Can you tell me, what… what happened to Hermione Granger?"

"Sir's friend! Yes Dobby knows. She got very sick Sir, very sick after the Battle. After You-Know-Who was defeated she and Sir's Wheezy fight some bad men, very hard."

"You mean Death Eaters came here after Voldemort was killed?" Harry asked.

Dobby nodded fervently. "Yes Sir they did. Four bad men and a Dementor.

At that moment a voice interrupted. "And Mr Weasley and Miss Granger handled them admirably indeed." Albus Dumbledore stood in the doorway of the hospital wing, his eyes grave. Harry felt a surge of anger at the venerable old man.

"They had been walking the perimeter, continuing the guard duties set up, as you know to involve the teachers and seventh years."

"But why" Harry said, looking at Dobby "why did they go on guard duty."

"It seems, Harry" said Dumbledore, "That some of Voldemort's forces, headed by one Bellatrix Lestrange had the idea of conducting a raid on the school, in order to kill, well me".

He paused momentarily, "or die in the attempting and thus join Voldemort in wherever his soul may be. Mr Weasley and Miss Granger volunteered themselves to patrolthat night, and when the attack camethey dispatched of all the Death Eaters before help could arrive, although not without some damage. I believe Ronald Weasley sustained a broken shoulder and collarbone, whilst Miss Granger"

Harry's face darkened "was hit with a very powerful curse that broke her back."

"And why haven't you fixed her?" Harry demanded. "Pomfrey grows back bones; surely she can mend a busted back!"

Dumbledore shook his head. "I am sorry. It's just not possible."

"Why do you care what happens to my back?" a voice asked curiously and Harry jumped.

Hermione was behind him, her magic wheelchair gliding silently to his side. "Err." Harry stopped.

Ron, standing beside Hermione leaded forward and stared intently at Harry'sface. His eyes widened, and he grinned widely, before scowling.

"You know, that's not a very good glamour." Ron commented casually, watching the hooded man's face. "What do you mean?" Harry said hoarsely.

"You've been away too long."

Harry looked at him, confused.

"I can see you, **_Harry_**"- Ron paused to grin in self satisfaction, "and I Can't BELIEVE YOU'RE HERE!" Ron shouted to the empty corridor before sweeping Harry up in a hug.

Hermione burst into tears. The headmaster retreated tactfully and Dobby watched wide-eyed.

"You jerk." Ron said, face red. "What are you doing here?"

Harry just stared, mouth-open. "I…" he started before lapsing into silence.

"Harry." Hermione sobbed. "I'm glad you're here."

Harry looked around, the familiar hall. His friends, who loved him and wanted him even though he ran away, even though he wasn't there for Hermione when she needed him. Every reason he had for running away seemed to fade away when compared with them and with his real home, Hogwarts.

"Me too." He whispered.

* * *

Still lost in his dreams Draco called out softly. "I can't do this."

* * *

As Harry sat in the warm Gryffindor common room, laying Exploding Snap and wizards chess with his friends his thought occasionally strayed to Draco, lying in a hospital bed.

At last, after much hesitation, he managed to explain that he was concerned for the boy, and Hermione put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

"It's all right Harry, you" "Or the mysterious Auror" Ron put in with a grin, "stopped him from hitting the ground too hard, Madam Pomfrey will be able to heal him in no time." Ron finished confidently and immediantly put 'bloody malfoy' out of his mind.

Harry hesitated and decided not to tell them that Draco had done it again. "Come on, let's go up to the dorm, it's quieter" Ron suggested as a group of fist years entered, staring awestruck at the Trio. "It's weird mate." Ron muttered. "We're famous." Harry nodded, he'd put the glamour back on to avoid the inevitable "Harry Potter!" but it seemed as though Ron and Hermione had the same effect on the crowd now.

Hermione followed them automatically and for the first time Harry noticed her Head Girl badge. He smiled down at her. "Head Hermione." The girl nodded and her eyes flickered over to Ron, who was trying to stand inconspicuously. "Head Boy" proclaimed his badge and as Ron noticed Harry looking at it his face turned red. "I-"

Harry interrupted him mid-sentence "You're head boy- and you don't have to tell me, Quidditch captain too. That's great Ron." Harry said sincerely.

Ron looked at the ground. "It's like the mirror..." he said quietly. "This is what I saw in the mirror in first year…but I think if I looked in the mirror again though, it wouldn't just show my reflection."

Harry didn't say anything, thinking if he asked Ron then he'd have to reciprocate with what he saw. Because Harry didn't see the Potter family anymore. Harry sighed and voiced his mind away from his pain, and from the pain he felt every time he looked at Hermione. "I'm not becoming a teacher. I'm going back to America you know." He said defiantly to his friends' sad eyes.


	6. Ron and Hermione

"Don't take your anger out on us Harry." Ron said sharply, resting a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "If you're mad at Dumbledore, if you have things to get out to him," he paused and broke into an ironic grin, "Take a number and get in line."

Harry flushed. _Damn these two! I'm acting like a silly kid._

"You're right." Harry said slowly and reluctantly. "I am angry with the old man."

He looked Ron up and down. Besides being taller and more muscular, Ron had obviously changed on the inside too, becoming much more insightful and quicker of mind.

_Using that chess brain for something beside the chessboard, obviously. _Harry thoughtapprovingly. _God, I sound like McGonagall._

Hermione? Well she had changed physically, but being confined to a wheelchair had obviously affected more than her height. Some of her old frantic energy was gone; she gazed up at him serenely, even though their chatting was taking up time Harry was sure she would usually use to study for N.E.W.T.S.

Harry glanced around. Hannah Abbot appeared at the end of the corridor and Harry turned his face away, casting the glamour he used when he had no other choice. His hair was straw yellow, his eyes blue and his face freckled.

"Not your usual look, surely?" Hermione asked as she checked out his new face.

"Not now." Harry said shortly. "Dumbledore warned me the new wards wouldn't allow it. But normally, yeah, I have a stronger glamour; only need recasting once a week.

Hannah walked past, smiled shyly at the two Gryffindors and carefully avoided looking at the person they were talking to.

Harry shook his head again. _It's different..._

"I was going to go into Diagon Alley...I have a room there...I didn't know how long Dumbledore would keep me. And then Draco..." he said hesitantly.

_Draco! Why would you do that?_ He cried out silently.

"Malfoy will be okay." Ron said reassuringly. "He can't be that badly injured that Pomfrey can't..." Ron glanced at his girlfriend and trailed off.

"So when are NEWTS?" Harry asked hastily.

"Few weeks, that's why we were practicing." Hermione answered, her eyes resting knowingly on her lanky, blushing boyfriend.

"Think you'll do alright?" small talk tasted alien on Harry's tongue.

"Are you kidding? This is Hermione Granger, she'll do brilliant." Ron said teasingly.

Hermione flicked her head back. "I think it'll be okay, whatever happens."

She stared Harry straight in the eyes and Harry suddenly felt she was talking about more than just exams.

"I, I have to go." Harry stumbled over his words, stepping backwards.

"Wait, where are you going?" Ron called.

"I'll come to dinner, okay? Call me Jamie then." Harry fled down the stairs towards Hogwarts hospital wing.

"Call him Jamie?" Hermione echoed.

"He must have a different name in America...otherwise the press would have found him." Ron said speculatively.

"James though? I mean, if he just goes under his Dad's name, he shouldn't have been hard to find, and I know heaps of people were looking for him besides us. The Daily Prophet, for one."

"I guess so. Maybe he doesn't go by Potter either."

"Now, are we practicing or not?"

"Hermione, I don't think I can concentrate now. Do you want to go back to my room?"

She smiled up at him and Ron walked sedately beside her wheelchair up to the Head Boy's private room, just outside Gryffindor tower.

"Now, Mr Weasley, I hope you don't think I came up here to be taken advantage of."

Ron looked wounded, a grin creeping onto his lips.

"Why Miss Granger, I thought we could hold hands whilst conversing about the political situation in Sweden."

She laughed, and brought her wheelchair up to his bed, carefully raising it up and using her arms to lever herself onto the bed. Ron watched anxiously but didn't offer to help, beyond giving her a special smile when she sat herself upright again.

"I love you, you know that?" Ron said softly, pulling her toward him.

"I love you too."


End file.
